On this day

1819: Prince Albert, Consort to Queen Victoria, was born in Bavaria.

1875: John Buchan, Scottish novelist and statesman, was born in Perth. At the age of 39 he was confined to bed and wrote The 39 Steps. He became Governor General of Canada in 1935 and was created Baron Tweedsmuir.

1940: The RAF bombed Berlin for the first time in retaliation for attacks on London.

1952: The Soviet Union announced that the first successful intercontinental ballistic missile tests had taken place.

1978: Charles Boyer, actor who was everyone’s idea of the great French lover, died, aged 78. He took an overdose two days after his wife died.

2012: Tributes poured in from around the world to Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, who died at the age of 82.